overheating of computer

[citycopiers10]

Hello guys,

 

can anyone recommend the best strategy or method utilized to avoid overheating of personal computer? Thank you

[kmount]

Good airflow inside/outside of case.

 

Suitable fan's to facilitate above.

 

Good position of case.

 

Consider the environment it is in as to whether it is going to struggle or not.

 

Would be helpful to know what computer you have and moreso what temperatures you are seeing / heat issues.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Kim

[Duke]

1) Buy a pre-built Dell/HP PC that's been designed to have proper airflow within the chassis. This will operate correctly in most 'standard' temperature environments as long as you don't block the front/rear vents and give it a dusting once every few years (assuming a fairly normal office environment).

 

2) If you're building your own, pick a big case with lots of fans, never use a GFX card with passive cooling and get a good (read plenty of reviews, the huge Noctua ones look a good place to start) after-market CPU cooler. Don't overclock, dust all the vents and coolers regularly, and monitor temps after you set the PC up. I've got a case with 2x 120mm fans on the front, 1x120mm on the back, 1x200mm on the top, both GFX cards have fans, the RAM has heatsinks, the PSU is has front and rear fans... never run into heat issues even with the standard Intel retail CPU heatsink.

 

Chris

[teejay]

1) Buy a pre-built Dell/HP PC that's been designed to have proper airflow within the chassis. This will operate correctly in most 'standard' temperature environments as long as you don't block the front/rear vents and give it a dusting once every few years (assuming a fairly normal office environment).

 

2) If you're building your own, pick a big case with lots of fans, never use a GFX card with passive cooling and get a good (read plenty of reviews, the huge Noctua ones look a good place to start) after-market CPU cooler. Don't overclock, dust all the vents and coolers regularly, and monitor temps after you set the PC up. I've got a case with 2x 120mm fans on the front, 1x120mm on the back, 1x200mm on the top, both GFX cards have fans, the RAM has heatsinks, the PSU is has front and rear fans... never run into heat issues even with the standard Intel retail CPU heatsink.

 

Chris

 

Bet your neighbours love you, must be like living next door to Heathrow airport when you start that one up ;-)

[Duke]

Bet your neighbours love you, must be like living next door to Heathrow airport when you start that one up ;-)

 

Hehe, it's only the office PC rather than the home one thankfully. It's actually not too bad, and over the noise of everything else in the office it's not really an issue. The home one was a custom build - 4x80mm + 1x120mm on the front, 1x120mm on the back and 1x80mm on the side, plus CPU, NB and GFX card fans.

 

All things considered, both are surprisingly quiet. When you turn the PCs on the noise is noticeable, but it's a very low frequency 'whoosh' rather than the higher-pitched 'bzzzz' you get from many desktop PCs. More importantly for me, it's a constant noise that I can very easily tune out without thinking about it. I personally hate having to listen to a PC that's always going bzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ as the smaller fans kick up or down in speed. If the sound changes a lot then it gets on my nerves, if it's constant I don't really notice it as long as it's not stupidly loud.

[jamesfed]

Try to get an intake/exaust system - thats where you have a fan sucking cool air in from the front and kicking hot hair out the back - I use 120mm fans in my gaming PC but 92mm fans (Im a fan (no pun intended) of Asksa/Enermax fans) would do perfectly in any normal PC - just make sure you get variable speed control.

In the PC that I use in the office the only fans are in the PSU and on the CPU but thats a great big cooler so it keeps the whole system cool

[dhicks]

can anyone recommend the best strategy or method utilized to avoid overheating of personal computer?

 

I can recommend the Antec 1200 case - it has huge but nearly silent fans on the top and back, and comes with three drive cages with built-in fans at the front. We've removed those front fans to put in 12 5.25" front-loading SATA drive bays, so I don't know how much noise those ones made, but our machine is very quiet, especially compared to the amount of noise most large file servers make. It certainly seems to be cool enough, too - we used "Eco Green" energy-saving drives, which probably made a difference, but nothing seems to be getting too warm. The 1200 isn't neccesarily going to fit in your front room, mind - it stands nearly waist-high, which might make it a bit large for your needs.

 

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David Hicks

[ZeroHour]

I have an Antec 1200 as well, its pretty pimp

[yugo]

Also have the 1200. Had to turn off the front fans, I found they gathered too much dust. Anyone else find that?

[gshaw]

The 1200 is a beast... I've got the 900 and the airflow in that is immense

[Duke]

Also have the 1200. Had to turn off the front fans, I found they gathered too much dust. Anyone else find that?

 

Got a 900, and yes I did find the front required a lot of dusting. Quick going-over with a paintbrush when it's turned off every now and then sorts it though.

[dhicks]

Also have the 1200. Had to turn off the front fans, I found they gathered too much dust. Anyone else find that?

 

Our 1200 has 12 removeable hardddrive caddies crammed in the front, so we had to remove the internal drive bays with fans to fit those. No dust so far, and there seems to be enough airflow around the disks to keep them cool.

 

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David Hicks

[yugo]

@duke

As long as its not just me. Thanks for the paintbrush tip, although since I have them off the dust is now minimal

@dhicks

I just have 2 hdd in mine so they should be cool enough.

[citycopiers10]

Thank you guys for the replies. I just brought a Antec 1200 yesterday, it seems doing fine. But my other computer is not functioning well, I need to place a fan directly to its microprocessor...I'm planning to replace my power supply and the CPU cooler...Is that the best solution?

[dhicks]

my other computer is not functioning well, I need to place a fan directly to its microprocessor...

 

Are you sure there's a good seal between the processor and the heatsink - could you maybe do with taking off the heatsink and re-doing the thermal grease?

 

--

David Hicks

[Duke]

[...] I need to place a fan directly to its microprocessor [...]

 

Do you mean you need to point an additional fan at the CPU heatsink + fan to keep it running, or that it doesn't have a fan at all at the moment? If it's a completely passive cooler then I definitely recommend getting one with a fan, even a basic one will likely solve your problem. If it already has a stock HSF (heatsink + fan) unit, buy an aftermarket one that's got lots of copper on it and a really big fan.

 

It's a bit out of date, but you can start looking here: CPU Cooler Charts 2008, Part I - Loosing your Cool? : The Heat is On

[citycopiers10]

Are you sure there's a good seal between the processor and the heatsink - could you maybe do with taking off the heatsink and re-doing the thermal grease?

 

--

David Hicks

 

Thanks David...I did try reapplying the thermal gel..hopes this one works so that I'll not use the fan again...